Any one have experience to work with dual MSP430F5438

Hi
Thanks you all for the reply.
Actually my concern is mainly on CPU power consumption. Becouse the device is going to be hand held so the design should be capable for low power consumption. Thats why I wanted to use MSP430, at the same time, I needed around 25K RAM and 300K flash (including display GUI & Applications). For the display GUI, I am going to use easyGUI tool, the tool itself needs 12K RAM & 150K ROM. Thats why I decided to use 2 micro (MSP430), one for only run GUI, other one for all application. The master MSP430 always send GUI update variable to slave MSP430 every 0.5 Sec. For this concept I am totally new, if any one have some documentation/idea or any pls shere with me.
Thanks in advance




Hi
Any none have experience to work with dual MSP430F5438. Each micro have to talk with each other. For my application I need 25K RAM & >300K ROM. So I decided to use two MSP430F5438. One for drive QVGA LCD and other one for all applications. How to communicate each MCUs.
Thanks

MSP430F5438 has (up to) four SPI-peripherals.
One could be master, the other slave. There are plenty of pins for faster (i.e., interrupt) communication.

Just read more about SPI and I2C communication protocols you can easily do that.

Regards
Chanchal

Hi,

If you are using MSP430F5438, then you should surely go for SPI protocol.. It will be better option to communicate between two ICs.

NIKS

Re: Advice me!!

Hello!

Your design sounds a little bit strange to me.
The ROM (I guess you mean the flash), cannot be shared by both CPUs.
And the RAM either. So if your application needs 25k RAM, it's fine, but
the fact that you have another CPU (let's call it CPU2) does not mean that
you can access CPU2's RAM from CPU1.

And about the flash memory, why not using an external flash, for instance
an AT45 (from Atmel) ?

Then if you really need 25 k RAM why not using a CPU that has 25 k?

I would try to look at ARM processors. Many of them have more than 25 k
memory, and some of them have a fair amount of internal flash.
The processing power is higher. One device will be sufficient to drive
your QVGA LCD and do other tasks.
And the whole system will be cheaper, less complex, more reliable.

Dora.

london said:

Hi
Any none have experience to work with dual MSP430F5438. Each micro have to talk with each other. For my application I need 25K RAM & >300K ROM. So I decided to use two MSP430F5438. One for drive QVGA LCD and other one for all applications. How to communicate each MCUs.
Thanks

Click to expand...

HI

If your application is not "power hungry" use single STM32F103 with upto 1M flash & 64 KRAM

And it is lower cost then using 2 MSP430

Also it is more easy to program since you all drivers written & debuged

Best regards

Bobi


The microcontroller specialist

Re: Advice me!!

Hi
Thanks your post.
Actually my concern is mainly on CPU power consumption. Becouse the device is going to be hand held so the design should be capable for low power consumption. Thats why I wanted to use MSP430, at the same time, I needed around 25K RAM and 300K flash (including display GUI & Applications). For the display GUI, I am going to use easyGUI tool, the tool itself needs 12K RAM & 150K ROM. Thats why I decided to use 2 micro (MSP430), one for only run GUI, other one for all application. The master MSP430 always send GUI update variable to slave MSP430 every 0.5 Sec. For this concept I am totally new, if any one have some documentation/idea or any pls shere with me.
Thanks in advance

doraemon said:

Hello!

Your design sounds a little bit strange to me.
The ROM (I guess you mean the flash), cannot be shared by both CPUs.
And the RAM either. So if your application needs 25k RAM, it's fine, but
the fact that you have another CPU (let's call it CPU2) does not mean that
you can access CPU2's RAM from CPU1.

And about the flash memory, why not using an external flash, for instance
an AT45 (from Atmel) ?

Then if you really need 25 k RAM why not using a CPU that has 25 k?

I would try to look at ARM processors. Many of them have more than 25 k
memory, and some of them have a fair amount of internal flash.
The processing power is higher. One device will be sufficient to drive
your QVGA LCD and do other tasks.
And the whole system will be cheaper, less complex, more reliable.

Dora.

london said:

Hi
Any none have experience to work with dual MSP430F5438. Each micro have to talk with each other. For my application I need 25K RAM & >300K ROM. So I decided to use two MSP430F5438. One for drive QVGA LCD and other one for all applications. How to communicate each MCUs.
Thanks

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hello!

Among the various flavors of ARM chips, there are also many low power
consumption chips.
How long does your design have to work without recharging or replacing the battery?
1 day? 1 week? 1 month? 1 year? More?

ARM chips are very widely used for hand-held devices.
What about your LCD? Is it a color device with backlight?

Dora

Hi Thank you again,
The device specified to work 1000 hour on normal mode (without backlight) with 4 alkaline battories (6V). LCD is monochrome 320 X 240 pixls QVGA.
according to my knowledge, if I am not wrong current for ARM is around 1.5 mA/MHz. If I operate the arm at 16MHz the CUP current it self 25 mA. It is high for my app. thats what I want MSP430. Correct me If I am wrong.
Thank you.

doraemon said:

Hello!

Among the various flavors of ARM chips, there are also many low power
consumption chips.
How long does your design have to work without recharging or replacing the battery?
1 day? 1 week? 1 month? 1 year? More?

ARM chips are very widely used for hand-held devices.
What about your LCD? Is it a color device with backlight?

Dora

Click to expand...

Hello!

That's better, but what about the battery capacity?
And what does the "normal" mode do?
Is it just waiting for user operation ? In this case, the CPU would just be in
stand-by mode and the LCD off. Even an ARM device consumption is very low
in this case.
Or is it doing processor intensive calculations? In this case, even a F5438 will
consume about 0.25 mA / MHz. If you run at the chip's nominal frequency,
25 MHZ for the REV A chip, then it will consume 6 mA, and I guess your battery
will not make it either.

I have no metrics about this, but I would say that one ARM might not necessarily
consume more than 2 MSP430s.

Dora.

london said:

Hi Thank you again,
The device specified to work 1000 hour on normal mode (without backlight) with 4 alkaline battories (6V). LCD is monochrome 320 X 240 pixls QVGA.
Thank you.

doraemon said:

Hello!

Among the various flavors of ARM chips, there are also many low power
consumption chips.
How long does your design have to work without recharging or replacing the battery?
1 day? 1 week? 1 month? 1 year? More?

ARM chips are very widely used for hand-held devices.
What about your LCD? Is it a color device with backlight?

Dora

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is water analyses meter. measure pH, conductivity, DO, mV so on. So once the meter ON it start to measure the parameters as above and update on the LCD continuously. I will re check ARM7 as well. Thanks you.

doraemon said:

Hello!

That's better, but what about the battery capacity?
And what does the "normal" mode do?
Is it just waiting for user operation ? In this case, the CPU would just be in
stand-by mode and the LCD off. Even an ARM device consumption is very low
in this case.
Or is it doing processor intensive calculations? In this case, even a F5438 will
consume about 0.25 mA / MHz. If you run at the chip's nominal frequency,
25 MHZ for the REV A chip, then it will consume 6 mA, and I guess your battery
will not make it either.

I have no metrics about this, but I would say that one ARM might not necessarily
consume more than 2 MSP430s.

Dora.

london said:

Hi Thank you again,
The device specified to work 1000 hour on normal mode (without backlight) with 4 alkaline battories (6V). LCD is monochrome 320 X 240 pixls QVGA.
Thank you.

doraemon said:

Hello!

Among the various flavors of ARM chips, there are also many low power
consumption chips.
How long does your design have to work without recharging or replacing the battery?
1 day? 1 week? 1 month? 1 year? More?

ARM chips are very widely used for hand-held devices.
What about your LCD? Is it a color device with backlight?

Dora

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...